26 NOVEMBER 2009 : THURSDAY
In the morning I took the Kai to the aquarium while Amanda did some cooking. We speculated later that there would be many single parents with kids there while the other cooked stuff for Thanksgiving, but that was not really the case. It appeared more to be out-of-town guests looking for things to do (while their hosts cooked Thanksgiving stuff).
I ran into Amanda’s coworker Laura’s spouse and kids, but I did not recognize them. The older kid Ben whom I do not know well said “I know him!”… referring to Lonan Kai… but then I thought he must have been from school. While they walked off, I noticed Gus… whom I did recognize… but it was too late to talk to them.
We went over to Jane and David’s for dinner. Two of their sons, Andy and Greg, were there visiting. It was fun. I did spend a lot of time making sure LK did not destroy things. We let LK have some turkey for dinner. David made a fire at Lonan’s request, but LK was later disturbed that he cold not turn off the fire like our gas fireplace. He then refused to enter to living room area all evening.
On the way home, a passing car told us our rear lights were out. Oops.
27 NOVEMBER 2009 : FRIDAY
It was a very sunny day… the first in a long time. We decided to go to the zoo.
Aside: how did the Woodlawn Park Zoo get the “zoo.org” domain anyway?
To avoid paying for parking, I dropped Amanda and Lonan Kai off at the south entrance and parked instead in the park and walked over to the zoo. We decided to go ahead and just get a membership.
I am a bit ambivalent about zoos with their captive animals and all. Of course, I do not have exactly the same feelings with aquariums with regards to fish, perhaps because fish don’t seem to care as much.
Anyway, the zoo will be a good place for the Kai. It is big with lots of places to run about and interesting things to see. This day, while sunny, was still a bit cold. Amanda did not bring enough outerwear, so I gave her my alpaca sweater. Which of course made me cold, but I figure I have plenty of excess fat to burn. LK was definitely fascinated by all the animals. Amanda noted that LK could look at, say, the tapirs for much much longer than adults. Unfortunately, LK was also not really interested in walking, so Amanda had to carry him much of the time. He does not like to be carried by me if Amanda is around. Clearly, we need to bring a stroller when we come back.
The zoo is pretty big, and we ended up only seeing a small portion of it. Mainly the savanna portion: lions, zebras, hippos, d-raffes, wild dogs, various primates, etc.. We saw a dying hummingbird in the wild dog exhibit… slightly disturbing.
We stopped by Carrie’s house on the way home. Amanda had called her up on the way and said “Do you have any lunch?” which I thought was slightly presumptuous. I did get to see Carrie for the first time since Avery was born. And obviously, I saw Avery for the first time. She is very tiny and she seemed well behaved. It seems Lonan Kai was an outlier in terms of baby craziness.
We picked up a bunch of Lonan Kai baby items that Carrie and Eric did not need, perhaps because they are too boyish for Avery. We had given them our stuff a while ago when their progeny’s gender was unknown.
During the Kai’s nap we cleaned up the house as Eve and Karl would be coming over for dinner. I also investigated the car’s broken tail lights. Nothing appeared to be wrong with the bulbs or the fuses, so I was stumped. I eventually made an appointment to have someone else look at it. I found out after making the appointment that at least one bulb was burnt out (through vigorous shaking the broken filament became more obvious), and went off to a Napa place in SODO to get replacement bulbs.
That store did not have any in stock, so I went to one by Boeing Field. Success! There was a German guy there looking for directions who simply could not believe he took a wrong turn or read his map wrong (which he did) because he has great directional sense. After he left, the employees wondered why his directional sense did not help his parking as he took up three or four spots. Parking lines are for other people it seems.
I popped the lights in at home and all seemed well. It was odd that both lights went at the same time, so hopefully there is not some weird electrical problem.
Amanda and LK went off for a playdate with Connor while I finished up cleaning the house.
Dinner with Karl and Eve was good. We had Thanksgiving leftovers. They had invited us over for dinner on Thanksgiving, but we had already accepted Jane and David’s invitation much earlier. It was great to see them. We have gotten together erratically since LK was born, mostly because we are on parent schedules… get up early every day, need time for afternoon nap, and don’t do much after 7:30pm… so we aren’t able to hang out in the evenings like we used to do. But, their progeny is due in a couple of months, so they will on parent time as well, so hopefully we will get together more. We gave them the clothes and stuff that we had reacquired from Carrie.
28 NOVEMBER 2009 : SATURDAY
Amanda was on call, so she was in the hospital all morning dealing with patients. I thought about going somewhere, but I ended up letting LK play drums all morning. After picking up Amanda, we went up north for a Chipotle lunch. We were going to run some errands in the area afterwards, but we found out there was going to be a football game, so we just went back home to avoid the crazy traffic.
After Lonan Kai’s nap, we went to the aquarium. Again. However, Amanda was feeling ill and LK was going crazy with the crowds, so we cut the visit short.
I feel ill later as well. We think the Chipotle poisoned us.
29 NOVEMBER 2009 : SUNDAY
Amanda had to round again all morning. I took LK to the zoo again. I tried to score free parking on the streets near the entrances, but even though I got there ten minutes after the zoo opened, all the nearby parking was already taken. I was surprised because the weather was not all that good, but clearly some parents are savvier than I. I decided to just pay for parking since I did not want to park far away and have to carry the Kai more than necessary.
We saw different parts of the zoo than before. I made sure to stop in the indoor Day/Night building as they are closing it indefinitely for renovations in a couple of days. The Day part had mainly reptiles and whatnot, while the Night part was full of nocturnal animals (pretty cool really).
I did run through the savanna part again so LK could see the “D-raffs” and “Ippos” again. I noted that the dying hummingbird was removed. Maybe the wild digs got him.
I got caught in Seattle Marathon traffic on the way back to pick up Amanda. Fortunately, she was able to leave the hospital.
On the way home, we noticed that a Fish and Chips place is going to open right by our house. Awesome!
Amanda worked on charts and dealing with pages while the Kai slept. I cleaned up and paid bills.
Once the Kai awoke we went over to the Eastside to Adina, Moneta, and Ethan’s new house. Ann, Mike, Connor, Liam, Bethany, Mel, and little Mel were also there. Pam and Annabel were going to come, but Annabel got sick. It was fun and Amanda did not get paged and have to leave.
We got home late (7pm!) and the Kai was tired after a long playdate with his friends. He passed out pretty quickly. I made chili for dinner and we watched a documentary about mummies in Peru.
